


Not Alone

by hithelleth



Series: Alone [2]
Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-30
Packaged: 2017-12-31 09:06:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hithelleth/pseuds/hithelleth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the scariest thing of all is having someone to lose.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bad Memories

**Author's Note:**

> The new info about Bass losing people from 2 x 06 had to be dealt with. It happens the same day as _Alone_ ends, but I thought a new part would be better than just adding a chapter, because of sort of different atmosphere.

Waking up at night had become the more frequent the bigger her belly grew.

However, waking up to an empty bed was uncommon.

Charlie’s heartbeat picked up instantly as the old fear of being left alone crept over her, urging her to scramble out of bed faster than was her habit these days.

She exhaled with relief, seeing Sebastian’s silhouette outside the kitchen window, and inwardly scolded herself for overreacting.

Still, _something_ was wrong.

She took care of her business, and, draping a shawl around her shoulders, stepped outside to find out what.

“Woke you?” Sebastian asked when she joined him, his voice low as if from suppressed crying.

Charlie shook her head. “Nah, mother nature.” She caressed her belly. “What’s up?”

He started out to deny anything was amiss, but he shut his mouth as she gave him the don’t-bullshit-me look. He leaned heavily against the rails.

She placed her hand on his, watched him swallow.

“I had a child,” he said.

“I know. With Emma.”

“No. Another one.”

This was new. And bad. _Very bad_ , Charlie thought, taking note of the past tense.

She couldn't see his features very well in the light of the crescent moon halfway hidden behind the tree tops. But she could feel his hand flex under hers, gripping the rail too tightly, could almost hear his teeth biting into his lower lip.

She rubbed his arm.

“You don't have to tell me.”

“I...”

He ran his free hand through his hair.

“It was a few years after the Blackout…” He faltered again. Charlie waited through the silent seconds ticking off.

“After my family… I was so excited to be a father…” he took a deep breath, slowly picking the words.

“I was so happy… we were so happy and everything was, everything was perfect until... there were no doctors, no medicines, only this old lady in our camp who used to be a nurse... she was helping and it looked so well and then...” the words rushed out now between shallow, quick breaths. “One moment everything was so good and the next... they were both dead.”

He choked out the last word, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. Charlie could feel him shivering, though the night was mild.

“I’m sorry.” Charlie whispered, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could. He didn’t move.

“What was her name?” she asked after a while. Not that it mattered, but it could help – getting it all out.

He cleared his throat before answering. “Shelley.”

They just stood quietly a bit longer, before he turned to her.

“Charlotte, I don’t know if I can do this again… if something happens to you –“

“Hey. Look at me.” She held his face with both hands. “I’m fine.” She took his hand and placed it on her belly. “Our baby is fine. We’ll be okay,” she told him.

“You can’t know that.”

“I can.”

“How?”

“Because I say so.” That finally earned her an almost-smirk.

“I’m not sure it works this way.” He sounded less desperate, though.

“It does,” Charlie insisted.

“Because you say so, huh?” He cleared his throat again, finally pulling her into an embrace, resting his chin on her head.

“Yes.” She confirmed, snuggling tightly against his chest. “Can we go inside now?”

“All right,” he agreed.

Once they were back in bed Sebastian wrapped himself around her, stroking her belly and kissing it through her night shirt.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“For?”

“Burdening you with this. I just… Earlier, when we were talking about the names, I… um, everything just came rushing back to me.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you told me.”

He moved himself up to kiss her. He looked at her closely, resting his hand gently on top of her belly. “I can’t lose you two, Charlotte.”

She caressed the side of his face. “You won’t.”

She could see he was still paranoid as he laid his head beside her. “We’ll get nana Isobel from the village here early enough, she can sleep on the cot in the kitchen,” she thought of.

He nodded, somewhat calmer. “Maybe we could have Pablito come here, too, helping around, so you don’t strain yourself too much. I think his parents will be glad to have one mouth less to feed for a while. And he can run to the village to get help if needed.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Charlie agreed. “Anything that brings your peace of mind.”

“I’ll go talk to them then, tomorrow.”

“Don’t exaggerate.” Charlie fought back a snicker at his eagerness. “I’m only past six months, I’m fine on my own another month or two.”

“Okay, I’ll do it next week then, just to make the arrangements.”

“Okay. But we’ll go together, because I need to get some things.”

“All right.”

“What else?” Charlie asked, seeing he was still mulling over something.

“Maybe… I should’ve been more careful… shouldn’t have gotten you pregnant.”

“Don’t say that.” She kissed his forehead while playing with his hair. “We’re going to have a baby, and everything will be just fine.”

“Because you say so.”

“Yes.” She wiped the last tears from her eyes, pressing small kisses to his face.

He grinned at last, pulling her closer. “Stubborn Matheson,” he mumbled, burying his face into the crook of her neck.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

Charlie giggled, snuggling against him as he softly rubbed her belly. She stroked his cheek, murmuring soft reassurances that everything will be okay as she closed her eyes, listening to his breath even out, before letting herself fall asleep as well. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good? Bad? What do you think?
> 
> And yes, I’m planning to write a chapter about the baby being born. (I just don’t know when.) It will all end well because enough bad things have already happened in this fic.
> 
> Un-beta’d, so tell me if you see something. Comments are always welcome.


	2. New Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For once it seemed Bass would get everything he had ever wanted.

“Hey,” Charlotte offered Bass a weak smile between contractions, squeezing his hand. “I’m fine,” she promised. The next moment she crushed his hand with hers, whimpering through gritted teeth as another one followed.

Bass wiped the sheen of sweet off her forehead. “I know,” he murmured. He didn’t sound very convincing to himself.

The truth was he was scared. She understood that.

He had hardly moved from her side since the labour had started the previous evening for fear that something would go wrong in his absence, save for the short periods of time when he had to fetch something or when nana Isobel practically threw him out of their bedroom, calling him _inútil_ and telling him to go “eat, piss, take care of the _animales_ , _idiota_ _,_ because the world wouldn’t stop _por tu bebe_ _._ ” So he did, because, well, no one argued with nana Isobel. He always returned in a matter of minutes, terrified to stay away for too long as his mind was plagued by the memories of the last time he had been in this kind of a situation. Charlotte didn’t say much, wearing an almost permanent stubborn expression on her face, so damn brave for both of them that it made his heart ache.

His thoughts kept drifting in and out of the present while he was trying to soothe and support her and not panic because it was surreal that he would get to have something good at last. Good things didn’t happen to him; or if they did, they never lasted. He was cursed to be the ruin of everything, everyone.

_He expected her to leave. Every sane person would have done that. Everyone with some sense of self-preservation would have run in the opposite direction from him as fast as their feet had carried them. He had been ready for that, had told himself he had to be ready as soon as she had started showing the sings of life._

_Anytime she could have remembered all the things she had hated him for and taken off, alone or with someone less damaged, someone who could have offered her a clean slate, someone unstained by the past. He had seen that potential someone in the boys they had met time and again on the road, the strong healthy young men whose eyes were weightless and smiles carefree._

_He would have let her go._

_He would have never left her, but he would have let her go._

_He wasn’t sure what he would have done with himself once it happened, but he really would. He owed her that much. Or no, not really. No matter how much he might have owed her, that wasn’t the reason. The truth was that he needed her, much more that she needed him – although she might have thought just the opposite – and that was why he would stay with her as long as she put up with him._

_Months blended together and hundreds and hundreds of miles had disappeared behind the horizon. They were surrounded by the unknown and one night when he allowed himself perhaps a sip of whiskey and a self-reflecting thought too many, he said it out loud in not so many words, telling her she had no obligation to stay._

_She stopped him with one of those deadly Matheson glares and they had another argument about leaving and not leaving until they ran out of words and sat sulking on the opposite sides of the campfire._

_“You want to know why?” Charlotte asked when the silence got too thick to bear. “Besides the fact that I love you? You’re the only one who knew them.”_

_He wasn’t sure which part of what she had said brought tears to his eyes, apart from it all being exactly what he felt, and it left him speechless, swallowing the lump in his throat and nodding because he didn’t trust his voice._

_“I’m sorry, for being stupid before,” he apologised later that night when she lay in his arms. “You love me?”_

_Charlotte scoffed. “This – fucking, making love, having sex, you name it – whatever it is that we have, it works.” She paused. “It works like nothing has had before, for me…” He heard the challenge in her tone as she trailed off. “And what I said about them…”_

_“I know.” He cut her off. “It’s like…” he fumbled with words. “Without that, without remembering, I wouldn’t be me. Although, on second thought, being me might not be that good.”_

_“No. It would be like they didn’t exist and that would hurt too much,” Charlotte corrected him, right as usually._

_“Yes.” He agreed. There was one more important thing he had to add. “And I love you, too.”_

The noise in the room brought Bass back to the present: Isobel’s encouragements, yelled half in English, half in Spanish, mixed with Charlotte’s screams while she was breathing and pushing according to the old lady’s instructions. His hand was numb from Charlotte’s tight hold – not that he minded, her knuckles white.

Suddenly everyone went silent. Charlotte sagged back against the pillows and his arm. Nana Isobel picked up a tiny little crying person and declared it was _una niña preciosa_.

“It’s a girl,” they whispered in unison, wondering over this little miracle the old midwife deposited in Charlotte’s arms.

Nana Isobel was nothing but quick and efficient, soon taking the baby away to clean and dress her. Before long Bass found himself holding his little girl, too overwhelmed to pay attention to much else, while nana went about helping Charlotte clean and change.

_There were only so many things that could remain a secret when two people were as close as them._

_The changes in Charlotte’s body didn’t escape Bass’ notice: her belly rounding and her breasts swelling, her body becoming more sensitive, tender._

_He waited, though, quietly, until one day she simply placed his hands on her belly and said it: “We’re going to have a baby,” and she wrapped his arms around herself._

_“Yes, we are,” he gently tightened the embrace._

_They didn’t have to say anything else._

“My little girl,” Bass cooed to the small bundle which seemed quite comfortable, lying quietly in his arms.

He retreated into the corner while nana Isobel swivelled around the room, changing the bed and tidying everything up like a whirlwind. Then she helped Charlotte lie down and left them to themselves.

“Give her to me.” Bass did as told, laying the baby down next to Charlotte.

It was a breath-taking scene, Charlotte caressing _their_ daughter, looking exhausted, yet her smile as radiant as ever.

“Look at her,” she whispered. “She’s so beautiful.”

“Yes, she is. Just like her mom.” He kissed the top of her head. “You did good, Charlotte, I’m proud of you.”

“ _We_ did good,” she amended. “What are we going to name her, like we talked?”

“Yes,” he granted. “She’s going to mess boys up like her mom, and kick their asses like aunt Nora and,” he hesitated, “making them scared shitless with just a look like her grandma.”

“Which one?”

“Both of them.” Bass laughed.

“Sounds good to me.”

“Yeah.”

“She’s also going to be charming like her dad.”

“Not sure if that’s a good thing.”

“You’re not that bad,” Charlotte disagreed, “when you aren’t ruling a country.”

“’Tis good that’s not likely to happen again then.”

“Mhm.” Charlotte agreed. She yawned.

Bass caressed the side of her face.

“What?”

He kissed her gently. “I love you so much.” He looked at their baby girl, touching her tiny hand, little fingers curled into a fist. “Both of you.”

“Me too.” Charlotte smiled sleepily, her eyelids drawing together.

Bass settled himself beside her and little Nora Gail, watching Charlotte fall asleep while listening to nana Isobel ordering Pablito around for a while before they too retired to a well-deserved rest, he assumed.

Only then he let himself relax and give in to the feeling of happiness, washing over him.

For once it seemed Bass got everything he had ever wanted. And this time he dared to believe it would last.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good? Bad? What do you think? Too angsty, too fluffy?
> 
> Un-beta’d, so tell me if you see something. Comments are always welcome.


End file.
